Why the West?

Key Observations:

Western Europe discovered the scientific method and the
connection between science and technology before many older
societies.

Japan independently developed many of the qualities required
for success in science and technology.

Many other cultures are rapidly acquiring science and
technology.

General Conclusions:

The West was first, not unique.

To explain the success of the West in science and technology,
we need to identify and focus on the cultural conditioning that was most
distinctive to the West.

Crucial attributes are likely also to show up in the cultural
conditioning of Japan.

These attributes can be learned; other cultures are doing just that.

Salient Features of Western Culture

“Western Culture” is a Serial Culture

Not Bound to Any One Group in Space or Time

Goldilocks Syndrome: Not too Little, Not too Much, but
“Just Right”

Isolation

Challenge and Threat

Fragmentation and Unification

Authority versus Individualism

Repeated Episodes of Hybridization and Synthesis

Judaeo-Christian Synthesis

Anglo-Viking-Norman Synthesis

Medieval Synthesis

Loss and Recovery of Classical Civilization

Stimulus for Directed Change

Attainable Goal

Related: Loss and Recovery of East-West Contact

Attitude Toward Change

Can be Desirable

Can be Controlled

Can be Initiated

Autonomy, Autonomy, Autonomy

Emphasis on Time – Individuals have Agendas

Stimulus to Innovation – Can Effect Change

Fragmentation

No One Group or
Institution had a total lock

Pragmatic

Tendency to Prefer Results Above:

Ideology

Religion

Class Distinctions

Machismo

Ideological Disputes Often Disguised as Practical Issues

Societies and Change

0 - No Change

Stability: Unstable. Sooner or later change will happen, even if the society stays isolated.

Examples: Pre-contact Hawaii, other isolated tribal societies. Easter Island, about as isolated as a society can get, collapsed from internal warfare and environmental destruction before Europeans arrived.

1 - Rejection

Stability: Unstable. Sooner or later a change too powerful to exclude is bound to happen.

Examples: Ming China, Inquisition Spain, Khomeini's Iran

2 - Assimilation

Stability: Probably unstable. Sooner or later a change agent will probably appear that is too powerful or too resistant to assimilate.

Examples: China throughout its history has been the type example of this response.

3 - Synthesis

Stability: Most stable

Examples:

The West and Japan have repeatedly synthesized foreign innovations into their own societies.

Turkey in modern times made a conscious decision to change its orientation from the Middle East to Europe.

4 - Traumatization

Stability: Stable but permanently changes the society. Any society receiving a great enough shock will be traumatized temporarily, but in some societies traumas have been great enough or repeated enough to imprint the character of the society.

Examples:
South after Civil War: lasted a few decades, largely effaced by later synthesis with modernization.
Russia: repeated traumas show up in deep pathos in arts and resignation and patience toward hardships.
Islamic World after 1258: never recovered former intellectual vitality

5 - Replacement

Stability: Probably temporary by its very nature: leads eventually to synthesis, traumatization or extinction.

Examples: Present Third World

6 - Extinction

Stability: Extinction is forever

Examples: Many pre-technological tribal societies

The "Goldilocks" History of the West

Some societies had too much of certain stimuli, others too little, and the West was "just right"

Europe was just isolated enough to avoid being overwhelmed completely, but not so isolated as to be completely unaware of outside influences.

Europe was just weak enough that it was often forced to cope with external threats and incursions, but never so weak as to be completely overrun.

Europe was fragmented enough to avoid a stifling uniformity, but not so fragmented it could not communicate or cooperate.

The collapse of Rome allowed northern European institutions to evolve, but Rome still provided an intellectual framework, a unifying scholarly language, and eventually a stimulus to reconstruct and surpass ancient achievements.

Bad Habits - Four Kinds of Ethnocentrism

We are justified in forcing our ways on others
(The West)

Outsiders have nothing to teach us
(Roman Empire, China)

Our way of life is the only possible way
(Hawaii, other isolated societies)

"Honor" must be preserved at all costs
(Middle East, Mediterranean, Latin America, U.S. inner cities)